Will's Glasses

ugh!!! I wasted 2 hours of my life last night updating the blog. 12 posts and over 60 pictures and every one of them had a question mark instead of a picture. So frustrating!! Trying to catch up and it's now working.

Will was referred for a visit to the eye doctor at his well visit a few months ago. This didn't come as a complete suprise to me because I am blind as a bat. We went and he did the test and the Dr. said he has an astigmatism sp? which is what I have too. Sooo, we picked out the cutest glasses. He doesn't have to wear them all the time and our Dr. said he will need to wear them more once he starts elementary school. So far, we haven't noticed if they are helping him much, but are thankful to find the problem early. He looks so handsome in them and is quite proud to wear his new glasses.

Wednesdays with Walker

Getting excited!

 

 

Rolling the pine cone in birdseed.

 

So proud of his pinecone!

 

Poor Walker. He's the 2nd child and doesn't get to do all the "fun things" I did with Will when he was his age. When you have a 2nd child, there just isn't time for a lot of one on one time. Now that Walker is home with me on Wednesdays (he went to a different MDO the first half of the year, but I took him out to spend some more time with him. Will goes to school 3 days a week and Walker goes 2 days and I work at their preschool on those two days, so I enrolled him in a MDO program near our house so I could have time to run errands, etc, but it just got to be to hectic going to two different schools, dropping off, picking up and I felt like my whole day was spent in the car dropping off and picking up. Plus, I just felt guilty and really felt that he needed some individual attention from me.) I've tried to come up with some fun things and projects we can do together. Sometimes, it's just as simple as getting out the play-do and building things together, which is a "big deal" in our house because I only get it out every now and then.
Walker has been really interested in the birds outside so I thought he would enjoy making pine-cone bird feeders. He was so cute and excited while making them, but the best part has been checking our trees everyday to see if the birds are eating from our feeders. This was such a simple project. The pictures are kind of blurry because I was trying to shoot in manual and it's hard with a moving target. I have loved getting to spend this time with him. He just doesn't know what to do with himself when Will isn't home. He loves waking up from his nap to go get Will from school.

Day 21- My babies are HOME!!

After spending over a week at my parents' house, my babies are home and I.AM.SO.GLAD! I misssed these little guys! I've been doing Castles and Crowns shows all week and to busy to blog so I'm sorry you've had to see the same ole Castles and Crowns plug over and over. I'm sick of looking at it as I'm sure you must be too! I think it's going to take me 3 years to do this 365 day thing. I should just say I'm giving up, but for some reason, I keep telling myself I will start it back up again when things get less hectic around here. Will loves taking pictures with my new phone. Here are a few of us goofing off before bed. They are very blurry, but I still love them because we were just so happy to be together again. They are my heart and soul and I just don't feel whole when they aren't around. Don't get me wrong, Len and I had SO much fun together this week. No bickering, low stress, clean house everyday, little laundry, lots of laughs and talking about life, remembering what it was like "bk" (before kids), but I'm glad things are back to normal. My parents and my sister (and her family) are just jewels and so generous of their time and everything!

Day 20~Plug

**You can click on the image to enlarge.
My Castles and Crowns selling season starts this week! Whew, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. Let me know if you're interested in attending a show and I'll send you the details. YOU CAN STILL ORDER THROUGH ME IF YOU CAN'T ATTEND A SHOW OR LIVE OUT OF TOWN. :) Just email me adcockcd@yahoo.com. They didn't produce a catalog this season so I took pictures of some of my favorites! So cute!! The swimsuits are adorable. Lots of matching brother/sister, big brother/little brother and big sis/little sis. I loved matching my boys when they were younger. Will has grown out of this, but you better believe I'm going to put Walker in it as long as I can! I still have a few spots open if you would like to host a show.

 

 

 

Knits should say up to a size 10.

 

Day ~19 1, 2, skip a few~More SNOW!!

Okay, I took a little break from the 365 day thing. I was having a hard time coming up with content and the mundane days of January were producing some negative posts :) Life is really busy for our family right now, but I have finally taken some pictures and will try to continue the post a day thing. We'll see if that really happens. Around 4 ish yesterday, it started snowing big, huge snowflakes and after 10 minutes it was already covering the ground and streets. It was beautiful. I feel so sorry for all the people trying to get home from work last night. It took some people 5 to 6 hours to get home. I had anxiety just reading my facebook live feed. Luckily, by the grace of God, Len left work early, stopped by Kroger and was home within an hour. We were delighted to have our daddy home on a night when he would normally be at his internship. He is the greatest! I have to brag on my husband. He stopped by the grocery, came home, started a fire, made chilli and got the kids to bed. Is he awesome or what??? Of course, Walker had some other plans during bedtime and came downstairs. It was kind of nice getting to spend some one on one time with just one child. We let Ellie (our dog) and gave her some much needed petting and attention. She was in heaven. This morning we walked to my friend Mandi's house and had a great time sledding. It was so sunny and there wasn't any wind so it was perfect snow weather. Here are a few pictures of our morning. Len didn't have to go in until noon so we soaked up more daddy time.

 

 

I realize my hat looks ridiculous ;) I had it folded and I guess I took it off and didn't realize I put it back on like this.

 

Day 18~One last before/after

 

This is chair I most recently finished. I wasn't going to do anything with this chair until I found the perfect fabric for my bedroom. It only took 1 yard to do this chair and I have enough leftover for accent pillows for my bed. This one was a little bit harder to match up lining of the fabric, but I'm pretty happy with the finished result. My room is very neutral. I've never even gotten around to doing drapes or any kind of window treatments. This fabric goes perfectly with the rug in my bedroom and coordinates with my robin's egg blueish bathroom.

 

I just realized that I never did a post on my first sewing project. The faux roman shade from Fly through My Window's blog. It was so hard because it was my first time to sew and I had a hard time getting the folds right and the zig zag fabric to line up correctly. It's still a little crooked and I haven't made it a top priority to take it down and fix it. I got this fabric on sale at Brentwood Interiors for $4 a yard!! I think they had it in the sale section where someone had returned it.

 

My bedspread is just a neutral silk quilt from PB that I bought several years ago. It was in my guest bedroom, but I got tired of the red in my room and was ready for a change so I just switched it with this one. My bed isn't made so I just took a close up of what it looks like.

 

I missed yesterday's post. Walker is still sick and I've been so busy trying to get some major things crossed off my "to do" list.

Day 17~Sunset in my backyard

 

This was Thursday night.

Day ??-Sick baby

I don't know why there's text on this picture, but I'm to lazy to take it off right now.

 

 

My intuitions were right. I knew it was WAY out of character for Walker to fall asleep sitting on the couch on Wed. He's had high fever, cold, cough and some other nice yuckies I'd rather not mention on the blog since late Wednesday night. I missed yesterday's post. Somehow I put my clearcare solution directly into my eye instead of normal solution. Anyone ever done that before? I have a chemical burn in my eyes and my left is bad so I went to my eye doc and he DILATED my left eye without telling me what he was doing. I was feeling really dizzy and wierd ( you know the feeling if you've ever had your eyes dilated). I kept waiting for it to go away in the 2 hour time I thought it would. I couldn't see anything last night and it made me so mad. No reading, no computer and I really felt like I take my eyesight for granted. I called his office this morning and told them, my eye is still dilated and they said, oh, he did it on purpose to last until Saturday morning. WHATTTTTTTTT?????????? That was not in my plans. I need a patch and I've probably misspelled a ton of words in this post. I thought about taking a picture to show you my scary big pupil eye, but I will spare you.
These pics are from my sweet baby today. Poor thing. I can say that this has slowed him down. a little bit.

Day 15-Ahh, Can you hear the quiet??

 

The boys are bathed, teeth brushed, their school bags are packed and I just took a picture of them all warm and cozy in bed. I'm having a hard time keeping up with this 365 day thing. We just haven't done anything to interesting and I haven't taken many pictures lately.
This has just been one of those days. A long day. I guess you could say I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. This was day 3 of Len not getting home until after bedtime. Still have one more to go. It snowed. Again. Which meant school was cancelled. Too cold to play outside. The boys get bored. I get cabin fever. Sometimes, it just exhausts me to even think about getting everyone dressed and out the door, including myself. Then thinking about breakfast, lunch and dinner. And right when I think I've gotten everything ready, I sit down only to hear, mommy I need more water, or I'm hungry only an hour after we just ate. Winter is just hard on parents and kids. Sometimes I wish I had a gym attached to my house so that my boys could just run all the extra energy off. I sat down on the couch for a minute to get on the computer. Sometimes I just hate technology. It's just so addictive. Not a minute after, Walker had dumped out a box of cheese-its and was stomping on them. One of those days. He fell asleep sitting up on couch today. He has never done this before and I started worrying that he might be getting sick. He fell asleep so fast I didn't even realize it or I would have kept him up. It was an hour before his naptime and he only slept for 30 minutes or so. There went naptime. My solitude. Once again, I was thinking about me, me, me. Yuck. It hurts to type out those words.
It's just been one of those days where the mommy guilt lays on strong.
I was short-tempered, impatient and irritable. I was selfish and wanted me time.
I was not showing my boys joy that I am their mother.
Days like today are not the kind of days I dreamed of as a little girl wanting to be a mom.
My boys still wanted to hold on to me as tight as they could when we read books and went to bed. They wanted me to rub their backs and stroke their hair. They wanted to be with me. Even when through the yucky-ness of our day. They still love me, even at my worst. Children are so quick to forget, to forgive.
It makes me think of God's love. He still loves me even when I'm angry with him, when I'm being selfish, when I'm not spending time with him, and not showing him or the world my joy of knowing him.
I love my boys more than life itself and the beauty of God's love is that he forgives. Tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning and it's up to me to set the tone of what/how our day will be like. It's hard to think that one day, my boys won't want me to hold their hands or give them back rubs before bed. One day, we won't have a little body climbing in the bed with us at midnight, kicking and moving all night long. Sometimes things seem so inconventient or impossible, but I know with winter comes spring and with spring comes beautiful days outside, going to the park and just the feeling of new life. I can't wait for spring! I know this is the most jumbled post ever and I'm a terrible writer, but I just want to be real and write what is on my mind.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. Psalms 73:26

Day 14~Just the 3 of us (for now)

 

This is my life right now. If you are a single mom, you are amazing. I don't know how you do it. My husband is getting his accounting degree and is finishing his last semester. He only had to get 60 hours to add to his regular degree in order to take the CPA, but since he works full time, he has had to do the Adult program which is at night. This semester, he has class on the following nights
Monday
Tuesday
Thursday
Wednesday-Tax Internship
Saturday 9-3-Tax Internship
So we really only get to see him Friday night and Sunday for the next 2 months. Have I mentioned what an involved and great dad he is?
Am I feeling a little sorry for myself? yes
Do I need to tell myself to be a big girl and quit feeling sorry for myself? yes
Walker at this age is just SO PHYSICALLY DRAINING. I have to watch his every move. In the few minutes I've written this, he climbed to the sink, got out paint brushes that were soaking and filled a soup pan to the top and began splashing everything with the paint brush. And I didn't even notice at first.
We are also making some very major family decisions that I don't really want to mention on the blog. It is taking all of my energy to check everything off my "to do" list to get things accomplished and ready to go.
I feel like I am cramming so much into my already crowded brain, that it just isn't working at full speed and I'm not making very wise decisions. I know 8 weeks will go by fast and we will make it. Doesn't help to have a snow day.
Sorry for the complaining. I don't feel like I even have a right to when I think about my friend Sara. It makes me feel bad.

Day 13- 33!

In my mind, I still feel I am 18, but my body feels 33 or older. The gray hairs are getting harder to pluck out :( Len ordered the most delicious caramel (my favorite) cake from The Flour Shop and I'm embarrassed to say that it is already gone. We celebrated last night because I haven't even seen my husband since 8 this morning. This picture isn't that great, but I loved Walker's expression. We decided to put 6 candles (3 + 3) instead of 33 candles and the boys loved helping me blow them out. They could hardly wait and we had to relight them a couple of times. I'm so blessed to have a wonderful husband and two incredible boys.

Day 12-Boy's Room on a Budget

For some reason, these didn't post in the correct order, ugh blogger!

 

I found this desk at the same antique/junk place as the bed and painted it the same color blue. It was so easy. I actually used spray paint and then used the walnut glaze to give it an older look. I did the same with the rocking chair. I framed one of Will's old finger paintings and just have it sitting on the desk. The desk was in my kitchen but it just didn't look right so the boys are thrilled to have their own desk.

 

I think I've done a post on these paintings before, but I saw them in a magazine for over $50 a piece and Len helped me draw them out and then I painted them. They are hanging over the boys' bed.

 

Here is a close up of the tricycle.

 

Day 12-Boy's Room on a Budget

I know I've posted pictures of Will's room before, but I finally feel like it's complete so I wanted to repost the finished look. The boys are sharing a room now so I had to add a "little bit of Walker" to the room. It took a lot of time and hard work, but I loved every minute of it. When you're on a budget, you have to get creative. I uploaded these in picasa and you can only blog four pictures at a time, so scroll down (if you want too) to see the other pictures.

I fell in love with this star fabric and bought a yard of it to go with the panels I made. I found the PB Kids green gingham panels at a consignment sale for $5 a piece and when I got them home, I realized they were a slightly different color. One was lime green and one was more of a pastel green so I cut one of the panels in half and put brown ric rac on each side as a border. I used the other panel to back the initial pillows and star pillows in the rocking chair. This was a long process with lots of mistakes, but it's finally done and that's all I'm going to say about it. sigh

 

 

My mom gave me this rocking chair when Will was born and it was a dark walnut brown. I decided to paint it blue to go with the rest of the furniture. I used the leftover star and gingham fabric to make pillows for the chair. We put Will's dresser in the closet because it is black and doesn't really go with the rest of the color scheme.

 

Here is a close up of the star fabric. There is only a tiny bit of red in the bedspread, but I wanted to use the red as an accent color in the room, so I used the star fabric, toy chest and shelf to add red accents to the room. The bedspread is the PB Kids Kasey quilt and I love the colors, that it's not to "themey" and it doesn't look to babyish.

 

Day 12-Boy's Room on a Budget

The boys share a room now. They love sleeping together and I think it just makes them feel safe, although Walker has gotten in the habit of crawling in the bed with us every morning around 4 is am. We usually don't even know when, but he just slips right in between us. Don't tell him, but I kind of like it ;). I made the boys these initial pillows out of an old brown shower curtain that I bought at TJ Maxx years ago. I never used it so when I bought my sewing machine, I decided that I could use the fabric to tie in the brown in the quilted bedspread. The pillows are brown on the front and green gingham on the back. I just cut out the letters and sewed them on. I borrowed this idea from a blogger I don't know, but love to read about.

 

 

I found this bed at an old antique store on Highway 72, the route home from my grandparents house. It cost me $10!! I painted it blue and then used a walnut colored glaze to make it look old.

 

My mom and I found this toybox at a garage sale a few years ago. I think it was $5. It was just plain wood and I painted it black and it stayed that way for a few years until I decided to paint it red for the playroom, but somehow it found it's way into the boys room and looks really cute at the end of their bed. It is full of stuffed animals and books.